State Representative David Heaton (R-Mount Pleasant) announced his retirement from the Iowa House after serving since 1995. As a result in Iowa House District 84 there is a four-way primary to become the Republican nominee and run against the lone Democrat candidate, Jason Moats, in November.
The candidates are:
- Martin Amos from Mt. Pleasant, a former sales manager who now owns a small business in Mt. Pleasant.
- Trevor Lynn is resident of Brighton, Lynn is a student at Iowa State University in Ames who served as a clerk in the Iowa Senate.
- Sheila Matheney, who, along with her husband, owns and operates Arbor Court, The Willows, and Arbor Village, a retirement community with 62 Skilled Nursing Facility beds, 12 Assisted Living apartments, and 52 Independent Living duplexes. Matheney is from Mount Pleasant.
- Joe Mitchell, a recent Drake University graduate from Wayland.
I had the opportunity to interview three out of the four Republican candidates.
Trevor Lynn
I encourage you to listen to my interview with Lynn from last week:
Lynn is a young candidate. He graduated from WACO High School in Wayland, Iowa in 2015 and attends Iowa State University. Lynn grew up and worked in the district starting his first job at Pizza Ranch in Washington just four days after his 16th birthday. He has worked his way through high school and college including work in the public and the private sector that includes his father’s business, Lynn Painting, serving as a Page in the Iowa House of Representatives in 2015, and as a Legislative Clerk in the Iowa Senate. He was appointed to the Juvenile Justice Advisory Council in 2015 by former Governor Terry Branstad. In 2016, Lynn was elected to the Washington County Central Republican Committee and became Secretary in January 2017.
Lynn does not have a website, just a Facebook page so I can’t direct you to an issues page. He does have contact information available on his Facebook page so if you have a question about a topic that we did not discuss in our podcast I encourage you to talk to him.
Martin Amos
Amos was the second candidate I interviewed last week.
Amos attended Iowa State University and earned a Bachelor of Science in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management in 1984. He worked a number of positions while in the restaurant business including that of kitchen manager, bakery manager, associate manager, manager-trainer, and corporate troubleshooter. He moved into wholesale food distribution he continued to move up the ranks He started as a salesman, who took the worst route in the state and built it into the best. He then became a district sales manager over eastern Iowa, then sales manager of all of Iowa, and was finally sent to Minnesota to lead the entire sales and distribution teams. He started his own business in 2012 which allowed him to move back to Mount Pleasant. He now delivers the very product he sold, nationwide. In addition, he consults and invests, to help small businesses get started.
Amos also does not have a website, just a Facebook page, so I can’t direct you to an issues page.
Sheila Matheney
Matheney was the last candidate I was able to interview last week.
She graduated from Buchanan High School and went on to earn her Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Health Sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia becoming a Licensed and Certified Speech Pathologist.
She met and married Ryan Matheney from Mount Pleasant and the family moved there in 2002 after buying a business. In 2004, Matheney went back to school and earned her Long-Term Care Administrators Degree from DMACC. Today, the Matheney’s own and operate Arbor Court, The Willows, and Arbor Village, a retirement community with 62 Skilled Nursing Facility beds, 12 Assisted Living apartments, and 52 Independent Living duplexes.
They continue to invest in the community. Recently, their Arbor Village South campus added 19 Assisted Living apartments, known as Silver Palms, set to open in May. Also, they are currently under construction for 24 new apartments located in Linden Heights, known as Heather Branch Estates, to help meet the workforce housing shortage in the district. The businesses employ more than 85 people.
Matheney and her husband, Ryan have been married for 22 years. The couple has two children, Jordan, 18 and Nick,13.
Matheney does have a website here, but it does not have an issues page.
Joe Mitchell
I was unable to get an interview scheduled with Mitchell last week. He did express interest when I first contacted him, but we just were unable to get something on the calendar.
Mitchell is from Wayland, Iowa and graudated from WACO High School. He was a senior at Drake University and upon graduation (which I assume was last month) he planned to return home to help his parents run their manufacturing business, MD Orthopedics, that now employs 30 full-time employees in Wayland. He worked at the state capitol during the last four legislative sessions.
“I’m competing in this race to make sure every Iowan has the same opportunity my Dad had
to work hard and achieve the American Dream,” Mitchell said on his website.
“As a state, we must uphold our Iowa values to make sure each and every person in Iowa can work hard to achieve their definition of success. This is done by common sense policies that grow our Iowa work force, cut government waste and make sure every Iowan keeps more of their hard earned money.”
He does have a website, but it, unfortunately, does not have an issues page. His campaign also has a Facebook page with contact information that can be found here.